Pakistan: The Latest

Things appear to be getting back to normal but political jitters have the Karachi Stock exchange sharply down for the third day as Pakistan delays elections til February 18. And hold the phone there, chief. Sharif's party will take part in elections? The boycott is off?

A reward for the identification of her killers is offered as the Pakistan Govt flip-flop-flips on assassination.
On a day of flip-flops, Pakistan government on Tuesday apologised for its claim that former premier Benazir Bhutto was not shot to death but hours later retracted it. Interior minister Hamid Nawaz Khan clarified that the government still stood by the "factual position" that Bhutto died of a skull fracture and not from a bullet wound. His remarks came hours after he was quoted by the media as urging people to "forgive and ignore" comments made by his ministry's spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema that Bhutto had struck her head on a metal lever on the sun-roof of her armoured Toyota Land Cruiser, resulting in a fatal skull fracture.

But Khan said his apology was only for some "crude words" that the spokesman had used and it had "no effect on the factual position" taken by the government. Asked by Dawn News channel if the interior ministry still believed Bhutto was not shot, Khan replied: "So far, that is the position...There is no change in the factual position," he said, adding the investigation into Bhutto's death "is going to take some time".

Benazir's hubby: Al Qaeda didn't kill Benazir. (I couldn't believe I was hearing this one speak about Al Qaeda - talk about pretzel moonbat logic! But he's right about one thing - in the war on terror AQ has nothing to fear in Pakistan because they've so thoroughly infiltrated both the government and security apparatus.)
...in an interview with The Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday, husband of slain leader Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, has rejected the government claims that Al Qaeda terrorists killed her. “Al Qaeda has nothing to fear; why would they fear us? Are they our political opponents?” he said.

No, her people did it...says former minister
Former chief minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said Benazir Bhutto assassination had occurred under a planning adding those deployed on her security were criminals and they might be involved in her killing. He said this while talking to the journalists here in Muslim League office after a meeting on Tuesday.

Foreign investigators to be allowed...but only as observers.
ISLAMABAD: President PML (Q), Chaudhry Shujaat has said that any foreign investigators were welcome as mere observers, while the assassination probe of Benazir Bhutto would strictly be carried out by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Pakistan says, UK, US, France offer help in Bhutto assasination probe. (I don't know it still sounds like a case of "Don't call us, we'll call you" to me...)
"These countries have been told that Pakistan would contact them for assistance if required," he said and added that Pakistan is committed to a thorough and transparent investigation into Benazir Bhutto's assassination and is open to receiving assistance from outside.

Doctors say they were pressured to keep silent on Bhutto.
"...doctors who were at Bhutto’s side at Rawalpindi General Hospital said they were under extreme pressure not to share details about the nature of the injuries that the opposition leader suffered in an attack here Dec. 27. “The government took all the medical records right after Ms. Bhutto’s time of death was read out,” said a visibly shaken doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Sweating and putting his head in his hands, he said: “Look, we have been told by the government to stop talking. And a lot of us feel this is a disgrace.”

Back at the Nukes... American, Pakistani officials reject report about US Special Squad Alert. (What special squad? See here.) Okay, so there's no special squad. But did the US retaliate with a Predator strike?

According to journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, the United States retaliated against the head of that faction immediately following the attack on Bhutto:

"This nest of takfiris and their intrigues was on the radar of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the day after Bhutto's killing Sheikh Essa was targeted by CIA Predator drones in his home in North Waziristan. According to Asia Times Online contacts, he survived, but was seriously wounded. Sheikh Essa had only recently recovered from a stroke which had left him bedridden."

There have been no other press reports of such an attack and no US claims of responsibility.

Bilawal Bhutto answers his critics, (including his cousin, three or four times removed) watches Buffy ...on Facebook.

BILAWAL BHUTTO ZARDARI, the 19-year-old son of Benazir Bhutto, has acknowledged critics of his "undemocratic" appointment as co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party and concerns over his political inexperience in a revealing statement on the social networking website Facebook.

Bilawal, who is due to begin his second year at Oxford University this month, wrote on his Facebook site:

"People have questioned why I talk about the virtue of democracy whilst coming into power through such undemocratic means. "I can say this much in response: these are the right questions to be asking. These questions are what the foundations of democracy and a free society are built on. The important thing is not to stop questioning."

"I am not a born leader. I am not a politician or a great thinker. I'm merely a student.
I do the things that students do, like make mistakes, eat junk food, watch Buffy, but most importantly of all … learn."

"My time to lead will come but for now I'm the one asking questions, not the one answering them."

More about the US Diplo murdered in the Sudan...

His name was John Granville. And he was only 33 years old.

Granville attended Fordham University and earned a master's in international development from Clark University, according to the statement. Although he recognized the danger of his position, the family's statement said he had been in love with foreign aid work since traveling to Cameroon with the Peace Corps.

It smelled fishy to me here. And after reading this it's really smelling fishy to me now.

The shooting resembled the murder of Laurence Foley, a US aid official shot outside his home in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in 2002.

But good old State - they wouldn't show some old fashioned, honest to God, we'll kick your ass, U S of A outrage if they had a mouthful.

Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the US Embassy in Khartoum, said it was too early to tell whether the attack was terror-related. The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said the shooting was “isolated and has no political or ideological connotations”, and pledged to bring the culprits to justice.

However, the shootings came a day after the UN took over command of the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. On Monday President Bush signed a law making it easier for US investment managers to divest from Sudan. Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has called for militants to attack UN peacekeepers in Sudan.

The Sudan Tribune stirs the pot with this article: Slain US Diplomat got into an argument the night he was shot. (I'll leave you with the juiciest bits...)

The daily Al-Hayat newspaper published in London quoted unidentified officials as saying that the John Granville quarreled with some of the people at the party before he left. The US official was being driven home at about 4 a.m. when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire before fleeing the scene, the Sudanese Interior Ministry said.

The official told Al-Hayat that the US diplomat “won a lot of money after which he got into a disagreement with the other gambling players then left angrily”.

“Some cars carrying diplomatic license plates followed him after he left” the official added.

The newspaper said that Granville was accompanied in the car by two women, an American and Sudanese. Both women were dropped off at their homes before Granville’s car headed to his place.

Granville is the first U.S. diplomat to be killed in Sudan since the 1973 assassination of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, slain along with senior embassy officer George Curtis Moore by the Palestinian Black September militant group.

Oddly enough, The New York Sun titles their article: "Diplomat's death ups Sudan Ante". (That's a strange gambling vibe too, no? Well, maybe. Read on, pilgrim.

According to reports by the New York Times and other press outlets that cited Western officials, Granville was leaving a New Year's Eve party in the capital shortly after midnight when his car, driven by Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, 39, who was identified by USAID, was cut off by another car carrying assailants who fired numerous times at the embassy vehicle.

This'll break your heart.

Granville had called his mother before he left for the party to wish her a happy new year, according to reports. A few hours later, she received the call informing her that he had been killed, the reports said.

Mrs. Pakistan World, you walk proud, girl!

Beauty pageants aren't allowed in Pakistan (get Bill Clinton right on that, will you?) so SF based woman is Mrs. Pakistan World.

Read it all...

For the Pakistanis devastated by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last week, there is now some cheer. San Francisco-based Saman Hasnain is the new Mrs Pakistan World 2008.

Hasnain said: 'In my role, I would like to change the world's perception of Pakistani women. I hope to act as a role model, and encourage, educate and motivate Pakistani women to help achieve a strong and progressive Pakistan.'

She said she would also expand her charitable work in Pakistan where she has already built a school for 1,000 children and worked with an NGO Development in Literacy.

Isn't funny that the feminazis are silent and Miss Pakistan and Mrs Pakistan organizers are the ones speaking out?

'The assassination of Benazir, who was the voice of modern Pakistani women, is a blow to us. But we want to show the world that Pakistani women have a global voice and a desire to progress.'

Hasnain's crowning, she said, was another step by modern Pakistani women to have a voice on the international stage.

'Pakistani women are not what they are projected in the media. They are modern, progressive women who want to live an independent life,' she said.

Since Pakistan does not allow beauty pageants for religious reasons, Sonia said: 'Liberal Pakistan-origin women have a platform in Canada to tell the world that they are among the most beautiful women in the world. We have a terrific response. Even hijab-clad girls and women apply for Miss Pakistan and Mrs Pakistan. But we reject them'

Bikini parades, she said, are a must for those seeking to contest for Miss Pakistan, which is held some time in the middle of the year in Toronto.

'We are making Mrs Pakistan a big pageant on the lines of Miss Pakistan. Right now, Mrs Pakistan contestants send us their photo portfolios. We hold phone interviews with them, quiz them and then shortlist them. Those short-listed vie for Mrs Pakistan as people vote online for them.'

Interestingly, Toronto, where the beauty pageant is based, was recently shocked when a Pakistani Canadian strangled to death his 16-year-old daughter, Aqsa Parvez, for refusing to wear a hijab.

Why Pakistan's crackdown on irresponsible media reports aren't necessarily a bad thing....

courtesy of Pakistan publication, The Nation.

(Not to be confused with that Katrina van den Heuvel's "The Nation." Although she could use a media crackdown or too, as well.)

BB hit with laser beam technology

by NAVEED BUTT

ISLAMABAD- Former prime minister and PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was targeted with the latest laser beam technology, being used by the American forces in Iraq, PPP sources told TheNation Tuesday.

Baitullah Mahsud and Taliban don’t have such technology. After bomb blasts in Karachi on Oct 18, Mahsud sent two messages to Benazir in which he said that they have neither any hostility against her, nor would make any attempt to kill her.

“When Benazir was admitted to Rawalpindi General Hospital, Dr M Musaddiq Khan told a PPP leader that he saw such a case for the first time in his life. These wounds were not of bullets, Dr said and added that she had expired before shifting to the hospital and a part of her brain and blood had spilled over from her head,” the sources unveiled.

The sources said that both gunshots and bomb blast were a decoy to hide the real shooters. They further said that after the suicide attack, the ambulance also picked up a dead body behind the stage of Liaquat Bagh.

The sources said that a meeting of Benazir was scheduled at 9:30 pm with US senators after the Liaquat Bagh rally. In this meeting Benazir was about to expose rigging plans of the govt in the forthcoming elections.

The sources said that Benazir normally used two bulletproof vehicles and often changed vehicles during journey if she received important call. When the incident occurred, there was a distance of 20 to 30 metres between these two vehicles.

At the time of incident, BB, Amin Fahim, Nahid Khan and Dr Safdar Abbasi were sitting in one bulletproof car while Farhatullah Babar, Dr Babar Awan and Rehman Malik were in the other.

The sources also told that two wills of Benazir were presented in party CEC meeting. “These wills were written by BB herself; one was about her party while the other was related to her personal property”.

The Paki "truthers" are being born before our very eyes.

Congressmen threaten Paki over aid...

We know they're moonbat idiots.

Twelve US lawmakers set aside their New Year holiday plans Tuesday to call for United Nations’ investigation into the assassination of PPP leaders Benazir Bhutto and holding of election on schedule - January 8.

They did so in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, warning their support for the future aid to Pakistan was linked to their demands. “We urge you and President George W Bush to clearly call for elections to take place as scheduled, and to endorse an international investigation by the United Nations of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” the twelve - all Democrats who control the US Congress.

“Our support for future aid to Pakistan is at stake over this issue.” The move indicates that the demand for the Hariri style probe into Ms Bhutto’s slaying is growing and the Bush administration may be forced to move the UN Security Council in case Pakistan does not open its investigation to outside agencies.

The letter said, “We are deeply concerned with recent administration statements with respect to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It troubles us that the White House today said that the matter of the assassination of Ms Bhutto is an internal matter for Pakistan. In fact, in other circumstances we have not hesitated to join in calls for international investigations of crimes with sovereign nations when the actions had worldwide implications and there were legitimate issues raised about the objectivity or capability of a host government to conduct the investigation alone - as was the case in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. “Furthermore, there are serious questions and contradictions emerging regarding the circumstances of Ms Bhutto’s death, including statements by doctors who examined her and videotape that clearly shows that she was shot by a bullet. These contradictions demonstrate the need for a vigorous and independent international investigation into her cause of death.

With respect to the upcoming elections, the leaders of Pakistan’ s largest political parties have joined in calling for the elections to go forward as scheduled on January 8. The White House has stated that the scheduling of the elections should be determined by the political parties, the largest of which have demanded that the elections go forth as planned. Yet the White House also said that if the election is postponed, it should be postponed to a date certain. This is not the right message to send, as it is practically an open invitation to postpone those elections.”

The lawmakers are: Steve Israel, Joseph Crowley, Ron Klein, Carolyn Maloney, James McGovern, Donald Payne Adam Schiff, Allyson Schwartz, Brad Sherman, Loretta Sanchez, Ron Kind and Adam Smith.

I swear to God, you can't make this stuff up! A moving sheep violation...

(I wonder if they got points on their license?)

Sacked for sex prank with sheep due to be slaughtered for Eid.

TWO British oil workers have been sacked after simulating sex with sheep due to be slaughtered for a Muslim festival.

The animals were being killed for 30 foreign workers to celebrate Eid Al Adhha in the Algerian oil town Hassi Messaoud.

The men, who have not been named, were reported by stunned restaurant workers and guards — then sacked by their employer, US industrial giant Schlumberger.

They were accused of “sheep violation”.

In other Muslim bestiality business news - Teddy Teacher off to China.

(It sounds like Gillian Gibbons hasn't learned a thing. Dhimmi extraordinaire.)

Taliban celebrate Benazir's death.

But not for long.

God bless the UK.

BRITISH commandos launched a devastating blitz on the Taliban – as the evil terrorists held a party to celebrate Benazir Bhutto’s murder. The dawn raid was staged after messages were intercepted about the sick knees-up in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Royal Marines crept into position as the fanatics partied the night away just hours after Ms Bhutto was killed in Pakistan.

The bash was being held in ruined compounds a few hundred yards from Our Boys’ remote base in Kajaki.

Ragtag Taliban sentries tried to hit back with machine gun fire – but stood no chance against the heroes of 40 Commando’s Charlie Company.

The terrorists were pounded with mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns.

Two bloodthirsty revellers trying to creep towards Our Boys in a trench were spotted by thermal-imaging equipment – and targeted with a Javelin heat-seeking missile.
The £65,000 rocket – designed to stop Soviet tanks – locked on to their body heat and tore more than a kilometer across the desert in seconds.

Troop Sergeant Dominic Conway, 32 – who directed mortar rounds – grinned: “It must have had quite a detrimental effect on their morale.”

Ah, the Brits!

Sheehan and her ilk get booed at Rose Parade

How sweet it is.

Some 1,200 law enforcement officers were assigned to the parade to deal with any disruptions. Twenty-one people were arrested during the night, mostly for drunk-in-public violations, police spokeswoman Janet Pope Givens said.

Two groups were protesting at the parade. Dozens of anti-war protesters led by "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan staked out spots across from television cameras, hoisting signs reading "Impeachment is Patriotic." The protesters were booed by parade watchers sitting in the grandstand.

Pakistan: The latest

Pakistan "agrees in principal" to delay elections.

Well, now it appears that Pakistan is willing to accept outside assistance in the Bhutto investigation.

Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States Mahmud Ali Durrani said in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday that his government would welcome outside experts to help investigate the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Even the Pro-Taliban militants are getting into the independent inquiry act.

In the meantime, it looks like they are just rounding up the usual suspects.

The city police on Sunday night conducted a massive search for hardened criminals and suspected people to find clues to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Things are getting back to normal in Islamabad and Lahore. Rumors of bombs and angry mobs continue to disrupt Peshawar and Karachi.

You know, I wondered earlier where CSI: Rawalpindi was during this whole sorry mess. Guess where? Apparently, he and his four man team was doing the Haj. Sheesh. No rush or anything, guys. Police team begins carnage probe.
“At this moment I can’t say anything. We are starting to investigate. I have just come back from Haj last night and received a briefing on the case,” the AIG told Dawn.

And it's too bad that Toyota doesn't read Dinah Lord - if so they would see that the aftermarket modifications on Benazir Bhutto's Toyota make this statement untrue. Sunroof injury couldn't kill Bhutto: Toyota

On the other hand, the Paki Finance Minister sees an "outside hand hired by foreign elements" in the violence. This, as the KSE (Karachi Stock Exchange) suffers its biggest one day loss in it's history and fuel shortages are causing Pakistan State Oil to invoke force majeure clauses in it's fuel supply agreements.
And it looks like Bilawal Bhutto and his sisters are getting the hell out of Dodge.

Just to let you know that people are still stuck on stupid in 2008: 48% of news readers say CIA assassinated Bhutto. Okay, it's Mathaba news readers but still...

And Benazir, the movie? Yep. Already in the works.

You can't make this stuff up...

Pork in mosque creates tension.

Tension prevailed in Dharapuram after a slice of pork was found inside a mosque at Kannan Nagar near the by-pass road in Dharapuram on Friday.

Sources said that the slice of meat was thrown into the mosque through the iron gates. A mosque worker Ibrahim spotted it when he opened the door of the mosque this morning.

Later in the day, over 5000 Muslims assembled near the Big Mosque, Jinna Maidan and took out a march to the RDO Nagarajan’s office and sought action against the miscreants behind the incident.

5000 Muslims seething. Over. A. Slice. Of. Ham.

Muslims may now wish Christians a happy holiday

Well, this is downright white of him, isn't it?

Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: Muslims May Wish Christians A Happy Holiday

Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the International Council of Muslim Clerics, has permitted Muslims to extend greetings to Christians and to other "people of the book" (i.e. Jews) on their holidays.

He said that changes in the global situation have led him to disagree with Sheikh Ibn Taymiyya, who banned such greetings.

Al-Qaradhawi also called to replace the Islamic term ahl al-dhimma (the people of the dhimma) with the term "civilians."

Okay, so who are you going to believe on this one...

I'm sure you've heard about France severing all diplomatic links with Syria.

Well, now there's this from the Syrian Information Minister:

Syria-France Relations Continuing

In response to an announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkoz (SIC) on France's suspension of relations with Damascus until the Lebanese presidential crisis is resolved, Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal denied any change in relations between the countries.

He said, "Despite the declarations, relations and activity are continuing until this very moment with all energy, in order to extract Lebanon from the crisis."

Yeah. Right.

US Diplo killed in the Sudan

US Diplomat killed in the Sudan

An American diplomat and his driver were shot to death Tuesday in the Sudanese capital, the U.S. Embassy said, a day after a joint African Union-United Nations force took over peacekeeping in Sudan's Darfur region.

It was not immediately known if the motive for the attack was political or a random crime.

"This afternoon, the American officer succumbed to his injuries and passed away," said Walter Braunohler, the spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.

Braunohler said the diplomat, whose name was not released, worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry identified the wounded American as a humanitarian aid official and said he was shot five times in the hand, shoulder and belly. The diplomat underwent surgery following the attack, according to the ministry's statement.

Five shots doesn't sound very random to me,

No Shi'ite.

Barclaycard Director forced to quit after Shi'ite joke.

"Joke deemed offensive to Muslims."

The punch line:

"The results were like Muslims - some were good, some were Shi'ite."

A land mine under an office chair?

Insane. Islamists blow up Somali Colonel

The Islamist group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior Somali military official and his bodyguard in south Mogadishu.

Colonel Farah Abdulle Ga'al and his bodyguard died when a land mine concealed under the colonel's chair exploded after he arrived at work.

Belgium on Max Alert amid Muslim terror threats

Belgium on "maximum" alert for possible New Year's Eve attacks...

the Interior Minister Patrick Dewael said on television Monday. Extra security measures have been in place in Brussels since December 21 after a suspected escape plan emerged concerning jailed Tunisian Al-Qaeda sympathiser Nizar Trabelsi.

The Belgian capital's traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display has already been cancelled to minimise possible targets for any attack. "We're on the maximum level -- the maximum means beyond that which we would ordinarily apply for New Year's Eve, beyond the level that applies in other European capitals," the minister told the RTL-TVI station.

"There are other intelligence reports about which I cannot say any more," he added.

The UN to the rescue in Darfur - without a single helicopter.

I used to think the people that ranted and raved about the US out of the UN were "nuts". These days I find myself agreeing with them. If this Darfur business wasn't so tragic this would be a joke.

UN Force Takes Control in Darfur

The United Nations officially began a new peacekeeping effort on Monday in the Darfur region of western Sudan in a ceremony that transferred power from the African Union. The Sudanese government had spent months resisting admission of the international force.

The peacekeeping force will be staffed far below the levels set by the United Nations Security Council when it voted unanimously in July to deploy 26,000 troops to try to stop the violence in Darfur. The region has been mired in bloodshed and chaos for four years, as government forces and government-equipped militias have clashed with rebel groups, leaving at least 200,000 civilians dead and 2.5 million villagers homeless.

As planned, the peacekeeping force would have been the largest such effort in the world, costing about $2 billion in its first year and drawing on military and police forces from the African Union and the United Nations.

Instead, after months of wrangling, the force that made its debut on Monday was 9,000 strong, United Nations officials said.

Experts worry that it may never get to the level where it will make any difference in the region’s troubles.

Not to worry, the UN is showing "impatience" with Khartoum. Listen to this vicious tongue lashing!

"It said the UN Security Council received an agreement as far back as June from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to accept UNAMID 'without preconditions.'

'And yet the deployment of UNAMID is still facing government obstruction with respect to the force composition and bureaucratic impediments imposed by the Sudanese authorities,' the UN said in a background document. It said the impediments threatened the deployment and detract the hybrid force from its 'potential effectiveness.'

'The persistence of these impediments cannot be attributed to a lack of consultation,' the document said.

The UN has criticized Khartoum for being selective in accepting nationalities of military personnel and deciding which countries should provide the much-needed logistical and transport facilities.

Khartoum had given its preference to African personnel only but has had to accept non-African forces. It rejected troops from Nepal, Nordic engineers and an infantry battalion from Thailand.

The UN has been calling on governments to provide helicopters to assist UNAMID, but so far no country in the world has offered a single helicopter.

The United States has offered neither troops nor aircraft, and the UN has not asked for US contributions, knowing that Khartoum would surely object to a US presence in Sudan.

This is just wrong.

It's important to note (emphasis mine):

At least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes since the "ethnic minority rebels" took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.

Meanwhile, Sudan lodges a UN protest against their neighbor, Chad, accusing them of sending troops into its western region of Darfur and saying warplanes from Chad had attacked two areas in the region.

Tension between the African neighbours has risen as the European Union is due to start deploying up to 4,000 troops to Chad and the Central African Republic to help deal with the refugee crisis stemming from Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region over their eastern border.

About those Thai Bombings...

Happy New Year-

I wonder, will this be the year that this kind of terror comes to the US?

Someplace like South Beach, or Vegas or New Orleans? I pray not.

Their targets were a karaoke bar just a 100 meters from a police station and a discotheque at a hotel (where the bombs were planted behind speakers) After the explosion the partiers fled, running to their cars and motorbikes in the parking lot. That's when the third bomb went off. It was strapped to a parked motorcycle.

The good news...three suspects are detained and confess to the bombings.

And surprise, surprise there's one named Mohammed!

Calling them militants, separatists, miscreants, insurgents, Asians, ethnics or whatever the loony libs are calling the Muslim murderers these days does not change the fact that they are Islamothugs who will stop at nothing to impose their will and they need to be stopped. It's important to note:

More than 2800 people have been killed in four years of separatist violence in Thailand's south.

Snatch and grab squad on standby for Paki nukes?

US Special forces on standby to safeguard Pakistan Nuclear Arsenal

This makes me feel a little better...
Members of the special forces are already believed to be nearby in neighboring Afghanistan and are on alert, awaiting orders to launch the mission. Satellite surveillance of Pakistan has also been heightened to keep track of the possible movement of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.

This doesn't....
Internal security at Pakistan’s nuclear storage sites is the responsibility of a 10,000-man security force commanded by a two-star general. Every member of the force is vetted with the aim of weeding out sympathisers of the Taliban and al Qaeda or anyone with extreme Islamic views.

US diplomatic and military initiatives since 2001 have concentrated on trying to ensure that pro-western commanders were in charge at the most sensitive sites.

There has also been pressure to keep Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency, thought to contain a number of high-ranking pro-Taliban supporters, out of the nuclear loop.

Especially after reading this

"It's worrying when half of your lower or mid-level Pak intelligence analysts have bin Laden screen-savers on their computers."

The conclusion of a number of U.S. analysts is that al-Qaida and other jihadis have successfully penetrated the armed forces and security services in Pakistan. Backing up their theory that pro-extremists found sympathy and support among influential people in the Pakistani security forces, the sources cited the example of Rashi Rauf, the prime suspect in a recent plot to blow up 10 U.S. passenger airplanes in the United Kingdom last year. Rauf escaped last week while being taken from court in Rawalpindi. The prime suspects are the security personnel, who some believe, have facilitated Rauf's escape, the sources said.

Of the seven or eight attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, two took place in December 2003 when rockets were fired at his vehicle during a visit to Rawalpindi, the same city where Bhutto was killed on Thursday.

Then there was the attempt to fire on his plane with an anti-aircraft gun in early 2007. There were also two suicide attacks on the Army's General HQ and two attacks outside the offices of the ISI, after Pakistani security forces, on Musharraf's orders, assaulted the Red Mosque, the Lal Masjid, in Islamabad last July when Islamists retrenched inside the mosque with scores of hostages.

Following the two attacks on Musharraf, junior army and air force officers were arrested. The ensuing investigation discovered that they had ties with Jaish-e-Mohammad, an Islamist group. In the rocket attack, the son of an army brigadier general was arrested.

The source says, however, that only lower-ranking army officials were arrested and court-martialed. The investigations are dead in the water.

Aussie Terrorist Hicks no threat

says none other than James Yee? (like he's kidding right?)

CONFESSED terrorism supporter David Hicks poses no threat to society now he has been released from jail, a former United States Muslim army chaplain says. Hicks was released from Adelaide's Yatala prison on Saturday, more than six years after being captured in Afghanistan.

During the five-and-a-half years Hicks spent in a US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba he had regular contact with then army chaplain James Yee.

Mr Yee does not believe he poses any threat to the Australian community.

"None whatsoever," he told ABC radio today.

"I'm reading all this stuff that he was trained in these terrorist training camps but I'm telling you any American soldier who has gone through basic training has had 50 times more training than this guy."

Dear James, you don't necessarily have to be good at it to be considered a terrorist. Did you ever think he was just a bad terrorist?

A strange confluence of Syrian circumstance

Weird. Here we see Arlen Specter PA-R (for retire please!) in Syria cozying up to the chinless opthalmologist while Patches Kennedy RI - D (for drink!) is off getting some coffee and receiving a pledge to free some dissidents. About those dissidents:

The seven opposition figures had signed a "Damascus Declaration" calling for radical change that united communist, nationalist, liberal and Kurdish parties and formed a National Council to press for its implementation.

I found it amusing that this occurs on the very same day that Nicolas Sarkozy announces that France is suspending all diplomatic relations with Syria. (Only our man Sarko, is cozying up to hottie Carla Bruni on holiday in Egypt. Now, who would you rather be cozying up with?)

France is to suspend diplomatic contacts with Syria, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced. Links will be restored only when France has proof that Syria is not blocking progress towards installing a consensus president in Lebanon, Mr Sarkozy said. Lebanon has been without a president since November, as rival pro- and anti- Syrian factions argue over who should fill the post. "I ask Syria to... work to create agreement," said Mr Sarkozy.

France "will not make any more contacts with Syria... as long as there is no proof of Syria's willingness to let Lebanon choose a consensus president," he told reporters, during a visit to Egypt.

Mansoor Dadullah gets publicly pwned in Taliban family feud

Can I hear a bwa-ha-ha, people?

"Taliban in Turmoil after argument over sacking."

The Taliban leadership are struggling to contain the fallout from an embarrassing public argument after a senior commander was sacked for disobeying orders but then refused to stand down.

Taliban spokesmen traded accusations in phone calls to news organisations after Mullah Omar, the spiritual leader of the Islamist organisation, publicly sacked Mansoor Dadullah, the new overall ground commander fighting British forces in southern Afghanistan.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman, said Dadullah was sacked for disobeying orders and conducting activities against the Taliban's rules and regulations. He refused to elaborate on the exact nature of the charges.

Makes you to shudder to think, doesn't it? I mean, really. What in God's name would you have to do to get bounced from the freaking Taliban?

It looks like there's a history: Mansoor's brother, dead Taliban leader, Mullah Dadullah, got fired three times by Mullah Omar for "disobeying orders and conducting grotesquely excessive massacres of civilians and prisoners." There's your Muslim overlord for ya! Let's give that man access to some nukes!

For the record, Mansoor claims to be the victim of a conspiracy.

Aussie Terror Family Feud

Geez, maybe my family is not looking so bad after all.

Hicks family row over kids TV deal.

The "sunroof did it" theory

gains some credence with the release of these X-rays and pics. Where is CSI: Rawalpindi when you need them? Please note the sun roof handle with blood on it. I was having a hard time featuring what kind of handle a Toyota sunroof could have - evidently the up armoring of the vehicle had resulted to modifications of the sunroof. You can easily see that the force of the blast coupled with the size of that handle could crack your noggin like an egg. Or NOT.

From IBN live via LGF. (Warning: Graphic images at link.)

A handout released by Pakistan's Interior Ministry show images of Benazir Bhutto's skull (left). A set of images that show Bhutto's vehicle.

The Kenyan elections: "There is a Christian I am fighting against..."

I'm sure you've heard about the elections in Kenya. And the reports of voting irregularities and riots in the streets. All tribal unrest this. And ethnic rioting that...

Funny, you don't read much about the ISLAMISTS...

From an excellent piece in the NY Times entitled The African Front.

These are some of the most extraordinary and unsettling times in Kenya’s post-independence history. The country is in the middle of a boom, its 5.7 percent annual growth rate among the highest in Africa. Shopping malls and office towers are rising in nearly every corner of Nairobi; S.U.V.’s and luxury cars fill the streets, and the traffic has gotten bad enough to invite comparisons with Bangkok. Kenya’s tourism industry has been highly sensitive to both domestic and international terrorism but is now flourishing. And while the country is still plagued by corruption, tribalism and poverty, the one-party rule that gripped Kenya for four decades — first under Jomo Kenyatta, then under President Daniel arap Moi, who voluntarily stepped down in 2002 after 24 years in power — has given way to one of Africa’s liveliest multi-party systems.

At the same time, militant Islam has also found a foothold. A sizable, largely poor Muslim population concentrated along the coast — and proximity to the volatile states in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Sudan — have made Kenya especially vulnerable, in the views of counter-terrorism experts, to the call for jihad. Since the early 1990s, the mosques of Mombasa and other towns have resonated with militant Islamic rhetoric. Radical imams have preached violence against Westerners, attacked the Kenyan government as the lackey of the United States and Israel and called for the implementation of Shariah. Members of the Qaeda cells that blew up the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Aug. 7, 1998, were recruited in mosques near the Indian Ocean beaches where hundreds of thousands of Western tourists flock each year.

Kenya is “a good place” for militant Islamists to blend in, I was told by Al Amin Kimathi, the director of the Muslim Human Rights Forum in Nairobi, which accuses the Kenyan government of discrimination against the country’s roughly four million Muslims (in a total population of 37 million). He added, only half in jest: “Even Osama Bin Laden could hang around here. He could land at the airport, spread some money around and he’d be walking.”

And there's more - including this about two candidates for the Kenyan parliament. One is the incumbent, an American educated Christian and his challenger, an Islamist engineer - who converted to Islam in college and advocates the caliphate.

Hardera, a gritty town on the Somali border... is populated almost entirely by ethnic Somalis, many of whom supported the radical Islamists who had just seized control of Mogadishu and who were angry at what they regard as U.S. machinations to unseat them with Ethiopian help. After announcing his candidacy for Kenya’s Parliament, Kura told me, Harugura addressed an outdoor gathering of Somali Muslims in Hardera. “He told the Somalis: ‘There is a Christian I am fighting against. I want to bring about an environment where all are Islamic, because our people are lost.’

Do read it all.

Sturm und drang

Well, I'm finally back after weeks of family drama followed by three days of a bad flu.

They sure call them "nuclear families" for a reason, don't they?

I must admit that this most recent bout of familial psychodrama and personal upheaval had left me "this close" to throwing in the blog towel once and for all. There are so many sites out there on the interwebs that do it so much better.

Then those bastards murdered Benazir Bhutto.

And I realized I couldn't walk away from this fight. Not just yet.

So let's get back at it with some quality linkage, shall we?

(Upon further reflection I suppose I should be counting my blessings about the state of my nuclear family - it could be worse - at least they aren't a famous political dynasty of a nuclear nation teetering on the brink of failed statehood.)

Speaking of, I just saw a clip of the young Bilawal Bhutto (his name is being changed to his mother's maiden name - you know that's got to chap an Islamist hide or two) and it surprised me just how breathtakingly young he appeared. (Video can be seen here.)

The money quote: "My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge,"

The encouraging part: "We have decided to go for elections," Zardari said. "We are grateful to Nawaz Sharif for announcing his boycott of the election but we appeal to him to end the boycott and take part."

Minutes later, spokesmen for Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League-N party said they would take part in the vote, saying the decision was taken after Zardari asked him to participate when they met on Saturday.

A Getty Images photog's first hand account of the ROP's latest can be found in Benazir Photographer surprised by her waving to supporters.

About the bomber:
Sources close to investigators said that a plastic surgeon had helped the police reconstruct the suicide bomber’s mutilated face. They said that the bomber, aged between 22 and 25 years, was a clean-shaven youngster having a normal haircut. The appearance is different from that of popularly known suicide bombers who wear long hair and thick beard.

Sources said that the police had also seized a head with bearded face from the bombing site but it later turned out to be that of a PPP activist.

(At the time the clips of the shooting came out - I thought the shooter looked more like one of those disgruntled lawyer types than a terror scumbag. And another head in addition to the shooter/bomber/scumbag - PPP activist or no just seems odd to me. Just sayin'.

About the bomb:

...forensic evidence revealed that the bomber exploded high explosives, weighing four to five kilogrammes and wrapped with hundreds of pullets and ball bearings. Sources said that the police found no striking sleeve used by the bomber for explosion. The sleeve provides vital clues to the investigators about the identity of groups involved in suicide attacks. Each group uses striking sleeve of its own for suicide missions, they said.

About the gun:

Sources said that the bomber used a 30-bore pistol and his three shots missed the target. They said that the police seized two pistols, one used by the bomber and other of an unidentified person, were in the police custody.

Another oddity?

Sources said that Rawalpindi Police barred Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials from examining the crime scene.

Read all about it here.

And did you watch the video and wonder where all the women were at Benazir Bhutto's funeral? Hah! "Special Arrangements" were made.

Translation: get in the basement, bitches.

And speaking of women - file this one under rich...

JI women’s wing denounces Benazir’s killing: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) women’s wing general secretary Senator Dr Kauser Firdos denounced on Saturday the barbarous act of terrorism, which claimed Benazir Bhutto’s life. In a press statement, Dr Kauser demanded that the government hold an impartial inquiry into the vicious act.

File this one under so rich it's sick: Baitullah Mehsud: Al-Qaeda not involved in BB’s killing: Spokesman says attacking a woman is against our tribal norms

Meanwhile, all of those peaceful denizens of Islam and members of the PPP party continue rioting resulting in scarcity of food, gas and items of daily living.

Shortage of daily use items in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

And it's spreading to Karachi. Or not.

Due to continuation of clashes among Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) supporters and law enforcing agencies, the supply of basic necessity of life is totally stopped. Major markets in both cities are closed and the small shops located in inner parts have little stocks to feed such a huge population. As a result the prices of different items recorded upward trends. Availability of fresh vegetables and fruits are most affected items that are not available in small shops because there was no supply of such items in the market.

Closer (sic)of petrol pumps and CNG stations both in Rawalpindi and Islamabad badly affected people mobility to get food items from safe areas. However, in Islamabad some petrol pumps and CNG stations opened in afternoon and long queues were observed in such pumps. The situation in Rawalpindi is worst because the clashes still continue and all main roads totally blocked. Not a single petrol pump was open in Rawalpindi and the residents of that city are suffering heavily.

And things like this aren't helping the situation:
Separately, up to 400 PPP activists carrying banners, portraits of Bhutto and wielding bricks, tried to burst into an oilfield facility near Hyderabad before dawn, when security forces acted on orders to shoot violent protesters on sight.

The Railways are getting pounded. It is hoped that they will reopen next week after putting repairs on a war footing. And who knew that Pakistan was a nation of prepaid phone card users?

Mobile phone subscribers are still facing difficulties to contact their loved ones due to the unavailability of prepaid cards all over the country.

Oh and Iran has closed it's borders with Pakistan in light of the recent unrest. Meanwhile, back in Swat: Security conduct fire at suspected hide-outs in Swat

Not to worry, Musharraf and Soomro are vowing to make Pakistan a developed Islamic Welfare State.

Don't think this will start a run on the dollar or anything, but here's a tidbit about another failed quasi Islamo-state teetering on the verge of collapse, the Sudan, that seems important to note: Sudan to use Euro not dollar for it's central banking operations

(Like I said - it's important to note... Euro gains on dollar in official reserves.

The euro has fast gained ground against the dollar in international official foreign exchange reserves in recent months, according to official statistics highlighting the nine-year-old currency’s growing global importance.

Reflecting its increasing strength on foreign exchange markets, the euro’s share of known foreign exchange holdings rose to 26.4 per cent in the third quarter of this year, the International Monetary Fund reported late on Friday. That was up from 25.5 per cent in the previous three months and from 24.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2006.

The dollar’s share of known official foreign reserves, calculated in dollar terms, fell to 63.8 per cent in the third quarter, down from 66.5 per cent in the same three months of 2006.)

P.S. Thanks to all you lovely readers for your concern. Believe me when I say it's good to be back fighting the Islamic jihad with you all.

Going dark

until further notice.

Keep fighting the good fight.

UK: Nurses told to move beds to face Mecca for Muslim Patients

and provide running water for WUDU - five times a day. "In a bid to promote cultural understanding... of course."

Now, nurses are being encouraged to spend valuable time turning around the beds of Muslim patients up to five times a day - so they can face Mecca.

Hospital staff in West Yorkshire must make sure Muslim patients' beds face in the direction of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia

In a bid to promote cultural understanding, they are also expected to provide patients with running water so they can wash before prayer.

And then, of course, they are required to turn the beds back around to return the wards to normality. The measures are being pursued by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust to ensure Muslim patients have a "more comfortable stay in hospital".

Hundreds of staff have attended tax-payer-funded workshops with Muslim GPs and ethnic-minority support groups on how best to help patients.

During these meetings, nurses have been told that if a patient asks for water to bathe in, or for their bed to be turned to face Mecca, then this should be considered.

If the measure is deemed "practically possible" and does not impinge on other patients, then it should be carried out.

And if it is not practical, nurses are encouraged to find them a bed that faces Mecca permanently.

But an experienced nurse at Dewsbury and District Hospital in Yorkshire where the ideas are being tested, has blasted the scheme. She said: "It would be easier to create Muslim-only wards with every bed facing Mecca than deal with this.

"We have a huge Muslim population in Dewsbury and if we are having to turn dozens of beds to face Mecca five times a day, plus provide running water before and after prayers, it is bound to impact on the essential medical service we are supposed to be providing.

"Although the beds are designed to be moved, the bays are not really suitable for having loads of beds moving around to face a different direction and, despite our best efforts, it does cause disruption for non-Muslim patients."

Read it all.

Iraq: Sunni lawmakers walk out of parliament

Because of the arrest of Adnan al-Dulaimi

Sunni lawmakers walked out of Iraq's parliament Saturday, protesting what they called the house arrest of a prominent Sunni politician.

Iraqi parliament member Adnan al-Dulaimi reportedly is confined to his home.

Troops reportedly went to the house of parliamentarian and Sunni bloc leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, two days after Iraqi and coalition troops found a car bomb outside his office compound, a member of parliament told CNN.

"The Iraqi government said that the security forces are there to protect al-Dulaimi's house, but now the Iraqi army is saying that al-Dulaimi is under house arrest," said Nada Mohammed Ibrahim, a member of parliament and the Sunni secular bloc, Iraqi National Dialogue Front.
Ibrahim said security forces were banning al-Dulaimi and daughter Asmaa Adnan al-Dulaimi from leaving their house.

"This could happen to any ... member in the future, and this is not right," Ibrahim said.

You're right Sunni fool - especially if you run a car bomb factory from your home/charity compound.

No wonder the Demonrats Democrats are squirming

Gateway Pundit has it all broken down for us nice and neat. Thanks, Jim. Since I know we won't be hearing much about this in the MSM I think I'll just email a copy to Pelosi and Reid - just to make sure someone in their camp has the info... Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Numbers from Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

The Multi-National Force-Iraq contines to rack up some amazing results since the Bush Surge began taking shape including::
** Violence in Iraq is down by 50%.
** Civilian casualties in Iraq are down by 60%.
** Baghdad casualties are down by 75%.
** Basra violence is down by 90%.
** Terrorist attacks in Iraq are down by 80%.
** IED attacks down by 55%.
** Average daily attacks down by 42%.
** Foreign insurgent flow into Iraq down by more than 50%
** Suicide bombings down 70% since March.
** Foreign Terrorist flow into Iraq down by 50%.
** Diyala Province violence down by 68%.

(Figures were taken from Aljazeera, DefenseLink, Investor's Business Daily, The New York Times and Aswat Aliraq)

Oh, and 5,000 US troops are coming home this month.

It's really no wonder then that Democrats are squirming to change the topic.

It's just too bad that Democrats cannot celebrate this good news for Iraq and America.

I agree, Jimbo!

Qatif Girl speaks about being gang raped

First by 7 thugs, then by the Saudi judiciary and finally by Prince Saud al-Faisal.

She was only 19 and a new bride when it happened.

Seven men held her at knifepoint and, for a number of hours, she was subjected to a horrific gang rape.

But when she later went to the authorities, they sentenced her to 90 lashes.

She complained in the media, so the punishment was increased to 200 lashes and imprisonment.

Her lawyer has been suspended for speaking out against it.

And when questioned about it what was Prince Saud al-Faisal's response? He declared what happened to be an outrage!

Unfortunately, his outrage was directed at the criticism leveled at his country not what happened to Qatif girl.

He's a real Prince all right.

Read it all.

Is violence integral to Islam?

A cogent question for CAIR from the Investors Business Daily Editorial Board.

Is violence integral to Islam? It's a valid question. When the pope raised it, Muslims proved him wrong by threatening to cut off his head. Message: Don't call us intolerant or we'll kill you.

If this sounds "Islamophobic," a favorite retort of the Muslim-rights group CAIR, straighten us out. We looked for a condemnation of the Sudanese troglodytes on its Web site and came up short.

We did, however, find "Action Alerts" calling on Muslims to boycott radio host Michael Savage for intolerance. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and the Washington Times were also singled out for attack.

Meanwhile, CAIR is hosting a panel discussion at the National Press Club on "Islamophobia and the Political Cartoon." Apparently CAIR, like other Muslim groups, condones violent reactions to free speech.

CAIR encourages Muslims in America to improve the coverage of Islam in the media. It says they should break the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists, and that of Islam as "archaic, barbaric, irrational" and a "religion of violence."

Well, what are you waiting for? Condemn the Islamic court's punishment of an innocent teacher. Certainly CAIR doesn't agree that naming a toy animal after the Muslim prophet is a crime just because it could be considered by the most extremist hard-liner to be an insult. Or does it?

The vast majority of Americans would change their negative view of Islam if Muslims would strongly condemn such extremism. But for some reason, they won't do it.

Until they do, they can't complain about Islamophobia.

Hitting the Links

Fore!

Wolf Howling takes a Taylor MadeR7 TP Three Wood to the Copperheads in his post: Have our Copperheads found their General McClellan in Retired LTG General Sanchez?

Several commentators have noted the similarity between our modern day Democrats and the Copperheads of the Civil War. The Copperheads were the virulently anti-war wing that took control of the Democratic party in the 1860’s. Their rhetoric of the day reads like a modern press release from our Democratic Party leadership. Their central meme was that the Civil War was unwinnable and should be concluded. At their nominating convention of 1864, they...

Conservative Belle tees off on (and smartly fact checks) Muslim varmint/apologist and Executive Director of the American Muslim Council, Eric Vickers about his appearance on Bill O'Reilly last night. Check it out - hysterical. I'm forwarding the link to O'Reilly as well. You can too at oreilly@foxnews.com.

On The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News tonight, Bill O'Reilly had a segment discussing the story about British teacher Gillian Gibbons. Ms. Gibbons was recently convicted of inciting religious hatred by the Sudanese government and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation - all for allowing students to name a teddy bear - Muhammad. One of O'Reilly's guests was Eric Vickers, Executive Director at the American Muslim Council

O'Reilly took Vickers to task over the lack of condemnation by American Muslim organizations for the actions occurring to Gibbons. In response to that accusation by O'Reilly, Vickers claimed that you could go to any Muslim organization's web site and see that every one has condemned it.I took Mr. Vickers' challenge. Here are the results from my efforts...

Fore! Ms. Tammy Bruce says it has taken a teddy bear (not a village) to illustrate how phony and empty the modern feminist movement is today. (They're not even taking the missionary position on this one!) Ouch - they might want to put some ice on that!

There has been appropriate international outrage over the treatment of Gibbons, from virtually everyone except American “feminists.” Multiple Muslim groups in the U.K. have condemned the sentence. Even the popular little boy in Mrs. Gibbons’ class who suggested the name for the bear came to her defense, explaining that he named the bear after himself.

Yet, when asked by FOX News for a comment about the situation, a National Organization for Women spokeswoman said they were "not putting out a statement or taking a position."...

Citizen Warrior hits a hole in one with his post The Jihadists How To Manual: The Quran. I'm thinking of printing this out on a handy card to distribute to all the clueless wonders out there. Excellent!

I have read the Qur'an. Every word of it, cover to cover. And I recommend you do, too. There are a lot of things in the book but if you excerpted the parts on jihad, you would get a short how-to book. That is what follows. The article below might be called, How To Wage Jihad in a Nutshell, taken from the pages of Islam's most holy book...

Cheers - Dinah